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Small modular nuclear reactors get a reality check in new report (newatlas.com)

submitted 6 months ago by machinin to c/technology

152 comments fedilink hide all child comments

[T]he report's executive summary certainly gets to the heart of their findings.

"The rhetoric from small modular reactor (SMR) advocates is loud and persistent: This time will be different because the cost overruns and schedule delays that have plagued large reactor construction projects will not be repeated with the new designs," says the report. "But the few SMRs that have been built (or have been started) paint a different picture – one that looks startlingly similar to the past. Significant construction delays are still the norm and costs have continued to climb."

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Who’s working to change the perception there?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago

Perception seems fine, every poll I've seen going back 10 years has been positive for nuclear power. Everyone seems to want it, they just don't want it in their backyard.

The Blue Castle project was (is?) a proposal for a nuclear plant in eastern central Utah, which is pretty far from any urban center and buffered by a mountain range. They won a lawsuit regarding water rights more than 5 years ago, but there have been no updates on it for 5-ish years.

There's a SMR project in S. Idaho that was active recently, Unfortunately, it seems to have missed subscription targets, so it's unlikely to move forward. I don't know where those subscriptions are supposed to come from (I'm interested), but I'm guessing it's cities buying in and many dropped out due to financing not being certain.

A lot of the pushback is from politicians, not residents. The popular support is there, but our legislatures and local governments are pretty conservative and unwilling to take risks.